But if you think about it, there are so many travel points out there that never get used since most frequent fliers simply don’t have the time to use them.  It makes sense, that the airlines would start offering alternatives for those of us with huge amounts of frequent flyer points.  Before you start thinking about yourself, you should know that there are countless charity programs that you can give your air miles to.  Most large charitable organizations often have to pay to fly staff around all over the place.  So if they can use your travel points to do that, then it means more money for the recipients of the actual charity.  Check with your favorite charity, and see if they accept air miles as donation.  You may even get tax receipts for your donations.

Plus, you can buy stuff for yourself.  A good place to check is with your airlines rewards program.  They have all kinds of gifts, perfumes, fitness equipment, electronics, kitchenware, and other household appliances. You might even find some Sports nutrition supplements like PhD Pharma Blend and Maximuscle Promax Diet for sale.  Most frequent travelers never get enough exercise, so this kind of stuff makes a lot of sense.  I’m a bit of a fitness and electronics geek, so I like to use my points on some of that stuff.  DVD’s, music, and gadgets are just a few of my favorite items.

So, the moral of the story here, is don’t let those points slip away, just because you don’t have time to take another trip.  Get your self, or that special someone a cool gift and use those points.

I was in this situation a few years ago, when I first attempted to redeem a lot of points I had on US Air.  My wife had always wanted to go to Aruba, and as it turned out, I had enough points to take the entire family to this Caribbean island for a few weeks vacation.  The first problem I found, was that it was impossible to book 5 seats on the same flight using my air miles.  It wasn’t that I wanted five seats together, it was just impossible to get five seats period.  As it was, I had left the booking too late.  We never got to take the trip that year.  But, I did learn a lesson for the next time.  The most important I can suggest when trying to book frequent flier miles is to book early.  Really early!  Basically, find out how far ahead you airline allows for booking flights.  In my case it was about 12 months.  So, call as early as possible right to the day.  This time things went a lot better, and I was able to five free seats for the entire family to what was to be the vacation of a lifetime.

Another thing to keep in mind, is to try and travel during non peak periods.  That doesn’t mean you have to fly to the Caribbean in the middle of summer, it may just mean avoiding Christmas, Thanksgiving, and spring break week in Daytona.  The airlines will black out those dates for pretty much everyone traveling on points.  When I first booked tickets this way, I was at the highest level of US Airs program, so blackout dates didn’t apply to me.  Over the last few years though, those privileges have dissipated.